Letters on spelling, Rihanna, abortion

I am writing regarding correct — or lack thereof — spelling. Recently, in a Tribune article where a driver was cited for DUI, among other offenses, after nailing the sign at a museum, one charge was listed as “wreckless” driving. That struck me as funny because it obviously wasn’t a wreck-less incident. The correct spelling of the charge is “reckless.”

Then in “The Buzz,” a writer suggested that the young Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was released by the Taliban, be “court marshaled.” Now, I don’t know if the response was emailed and the writer misspelled it, or if it was phoned in and a staff member is the guilty party, but it should be “court-martialed.”

As a former radio station program director, I cringe every time I hear words mispronounced by supposed professional announcers and every time I see misspelled words in the print media, especially in this day and age of spell check.

As far as the sergeant being guilty of desertion, that remains to be seen, but it seems quite likely given comments by his former platoon mates. If a soldier walks away from his unit and out the front gate away from the relatively safe confines of his base, should he really be surprised if he gets captured by people who have less than his best interests at heart?

— Dale Busby,

Great Falls

Editor’s note: Comments posted by readers online typically are not edited for spelling or grammar, unless they are included in the weekly Readers Sound Off feature found on the Two Cents page.

Tasteless photo

I’m just wondering how the editors at the Tribune think it’s appropriate to a print a large color picture clearly showing Rihanna’s nipples through a translucent dress in an Associated Press article in the June 4 paper. I would think a newspaper publisher would want parents to encourage their children to read the paper, in turn growing up to be adults who value a printed daily newspaper.

I realize children are bombarded with sexual images every day. Even so, I would have considered the Great Falls Tribune a moral step above much of the Internet, television and other media sources and, therefore, a better educational tool for parents who don’t want their children exposed early and often to those types of images. Apparently I was wrong. The picture was unnecessary and trashy and certainly not becoming of the Tribune’s status as a “news” paper.

— Daphne Denniston Worrall,

Fort Benton

Outrageous ad

The Sen. John Walsh political commercial featuring a woman who aborted her baby after being attacked is outrageous. This Democrat, liberal campaign cheapens the value of human life.

There are 1.2 million abortions in America annually with 90 percent of them being for convenience, and that is a statistical fact. Walsh and Montana Democrats obviously would say or do anything for votes!